Los adjetivos descriptivos - Mansfield University of
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Descriptive adjectives
Pluralization, gender, agreement, and meaning
Pluralization
We add a “s” to adjectives
that end with a non-accented
vowel:
We add an “es” to adjectives
that end in a consonant or an
accented vowel:
If an adjective ends with the
letter “z”, then we erase the
“z” and add “ces”:
ambicioso
ambiciosos
interesante
interesantes
egoísta
egoístas
trabajador
trabajadores
marroquí
marroquíes
laboral
laborales
capaz
capaces
falaz
falaces
feliz
felices
Gender
The majority of the adjectives that end with “a” are feminine.
The majority of the adjectives that end with “o” are masculine.
Un hombre idealista, la mujer idealista
Los países capitalistas, las compañías capitalistas
El político demócrata, la organización demócrata
Adjectives ending in “e” or a consonant do not express
gender—they only have two forms “singular” and “plural”.
Un país muy diverso
Un hombre honesto
Adjectives ending in “ista” o “ta” can be masculine or feminine.
Una gente diversa
Una persona honesta
Una profesora inteligente, un profesor inteligente, las niñas
inteligentes, los estudiantes inteligentes
Una persona útil, un carro útil, unas herramientas útiles, unos
trucos útiles
A group of adjectives that ends with a consonant (those that
express nationality or end with “dor”), have a special feminine
ending.
Una estudiante alemana
Dos novelas españolas
Una persona muy trabajadora
Agreement
Adjectives and nouns agree in grammatical number and
gender.
An adjective that refers to two or more nouns needs to be
pluralized.
Rosas rojas
Clavel perfumado
Cielo, paisaje y mar sureños.
Canción y copla nostálgicas.
An adjective that refers to two nouns with different genders
has to take the masculine gender.
Viento y lluvia huracanados.
Romance y balada antiguos.
Agreement: Special Cases
The adjective with two forms (the short preceding form and long suceding form).
There is a group of adjectives that have two forms. We use the short form before a noun and the
long form after the noun.
The adjective “santo”
We use “Santo” only when the word procedes a name that begins with “To” o “Do”
A suceding adjective agrees in singular with the collective noun or in plural with the complement
of a noun.
Tropel de palabras injusto, impropio. (con el sustantivo colectivo)
Tropel de palabras injustas, impropias. (con el complemento del sustantivo)
A preceding adjective that modifies various nouns.
The adjective agrees only with the noun that is closest to it in proximity.
la preceptiva autorización y control médicos
The adjective agrees in number with both nouns only when it refers to two people.
San Juan
Santo Tomás
Santo Domingo
An adjective that modifies various nouns:
Un buen hombre / un hombre bueno
Un gran evento / un evento grande
Un mal agüero / un agüero malo
los simpáticos Paco y Toni
saluda a sus futuras esposa y suegra
A adjective that refers to particular types of the same class or entity.
When an adjective refers to different types of the same class or entity (expressed by a plural
noun), then the must agree in gender and number with the affected entity.
las razas blanca y negra
Location and descriptive meaning
Adjectives almost always follow the noun that they describe in Spanish, because
they are restricted to describing its “real” or objectively observable”
characteristics.
When we express “quantity”, however, we have to make sure the adjective
precedes the noun it describes.
Un amigo bueno
Una voz rara
Unos carros verdes
Primer viaje
Varios amigos
Poco tiempo
Otra lección
Algún día
Esta camisa / aquél sombrero
Also, if we want to call attention to a noun for “explicative” or “emotional”
reasons, we need to place the adjective before the noun.
El extravagante negociante
El mejor amigo
La conocida escritora
La blanca nieve (sentido poético)